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A Couple of Fresh Grunts to Combat VAG and BMW

Corporate lease yuppies still early into their career have had limited options in the past when it was time to pick a new car. Renault Meganes and Fiat Bravos aren’t bad looking cars at all, but in Corporate Land they just didn’t have the status factor. It’s a factor that, when taken into account, waters down your options to three models only: a Golf, an A3 and a 1-Series. Everything else is either too daddy-like or too common. Except maybe the Volvo C30, but that just isn’t practical enough when you go skiing with a bunch of colleagues. That’s in the eyes of the hard-working suit-wearers that lease their wheels. I used to be one, then decided to check in for a second hand 3-series with excess power.

Well, Geneva has brought good news! Twice. Soon coming are two new competitors in the premium small family car segment: the Mercedes A-Class and the Volvo V40. Both models carry a legacy of round about a decade and a half, but neither has the image of being a good-looking, premium hatchback sort of car. The current A-Class is a favorite in geriatric environments and the V40 that’s on its last legs is quite popular among men in their thirties with their homes turned into baby hatcheries.

How different from what both carmakers are going to storm the market with later this year! Both models received a serious rejuvenation treatment, including the smoothing out of skin and the addition of stylish dynamic lines. They feel like two complete breaths of fresh air from the millions of 1-Series on the roads, the billions of A3’s and the trillions of Golfs and one of them may even possess the power to pull me back into Lease Land, though I haven’t yet been able to decide which.

Both cars have the looks that say they will be serious contenders in the market and that’s exactly what Mercedes and Volvo are aiming for. The Volvo is set to be released early this summer and starting prices resemble those of the A3 and 1-Series. The A-Class will follow several months later. Prices have not been revealed yet, but it’s safe to assume they will not vary much from the existing German offer.

VAG and BMW will soon find themselves fending off full frontal attacks by these two fresh grunts.

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